Innsbruck...sorry about the boring title

Today saw us on a train again heading to Innsbruck, a small place by the mountains.  We are staying in a Youth Hostel and the internet is located in the communal room next to the kitchen.  There are a few people here but mainly keeping to themselves as they are hooked up to devices.  The view out of the window of the Alps is stunning and, behind us, there is the wonderful white noise of the autobahn.

We started the morning looking through Mozart's house.  There were lots of his original instruments and music on display.  We have come to the conclusion that he was probably a little brat who was spoiled all the time.  Everything in Salzburg seems to be about Mozart and a lot of the souvenirs are branded with his image.  I bought some Mozart chocolates because they are quite nice. I might even have some left when I get back (yeah right!).

Train travel is awesome.  One minute I was taking a photo of the speed and it was this...

...nek minnit!

Sorry about it being blurry!

We went for a walk after we arrived to make the most of the last of the daylight.  The alps are very pretty but there isn't much snow.  There is a little war cemetary that we can see from the window and we went and had a look at it.  It was strange seeing the graves of Turkish soldiers there.  The Turkish memorials had little Turkish hats on them.  We went around the block and on the way back grabbed some dinner from a Pizza place up the road.  Have plenty left over for breakfast and possibly even lunch tomorrow.  Someone was smoking in the little place we bought dinner from amd the last two nights we have been asked if we want the smoking or non smoking section of the restaurant.  It's bizarre that people can still smoke inside restaurants here.  But a quick google of the smoking laws reveals it isn't for that much longer.

Tomorrow it is off to Switzerland for a few days.  Again, by train.  First class all the way!  Such a great way to travel.

The hills are alive...

Today was the Sound of Music tour.  We were driven around some of the locations where the film was shot while the soundtrack was being played.  As an added bonus, our tour guide pointed out all sorts of interesting things such as the houses he found unusual and some of the sights of Salzburg.  He urged the men to make sure they asked for a particular type of hairstyle that was being advertised, in fact, it wouldn't have looked amiss on our conductor yesterday!  It was quite bouffant in the front.  He also told dad jokes.  Here is my favourite: This guy went to a zoo.  It was a big place and in the corner was just one little dog.  It was a Schitzu.

So we got to see where they fell out of the boat, where they danced on the balcony, where Maria and the children ran through trees, where Liesl and Rolf shared their first kiss and inside the church where  Maria got married.  We were recommended the Apple Strudel there so we had some.  It was pretty good.

The nativity scene in the church that Maria was married in (nothing to do with the movie but my ipad won't let me put it where I want to)

Maria's actual convent (plus camera fluff)

The church they were married in

Boating on the lake with the house where the ball was in the background

The children ran down here and swung from the trees in their 'curtain' outfits

Apple strudel

After that we went up to the fortress.  We went up in the funicular as it is on top of the hill.  When we got up there, the views were amazing, as was the wind when we went up to the top of one of the towers.  We decided to walk down and it was a nice walk.  By the end of that excitement we were both shattered and my feet were hurting so it was back to the hotel for a lie down.  We are both getting hungry now so we should go get some food.

The fortress (plus camera fluff)

View of part of Salzburg from the top of the fortress

Funicular track

Walking down from the fortress

Doh a dear...

This morning saw us on a Hop On Hop Off bus around Vienna.  We had to run for the bus as we had stopped at a regular bus stop rather than the HOHO one.  Once on the bus, we decided to get off at the Opera House and have a look around there.  What we didn't know was that it was closed today.  We ended up going for a walk around the place and saw a couple of churches, St Stephens and St Michaels and also the Spanish Riding School which Alison really enjoyed.  We approached St Stephen's from around the corner so the first sight of it was stunning.  It just took my breath away.  Vienna is the city of statues.  They are everywhere and are very ornate and large.  As were the buildings.  Enormous and gilt with gold.  We saw statues for Goethe and Franz Josef amongst others.  We also saw a whole pile of flash cars with flags on them behind St Michael Platz in at the Government buildings.  Not sure why they were there but couldn't see our flag so apparently we weren't invited!

Sorry NZ, you can't come play with us!

A horse

St Stephen's

Then it was into a cab for the trip back to the railway station.  It seems that we were ripped off when we went to the hotel the other night as that taxi ride cost us 3x what today's did.  It seems we were taken around all the back streets.  Oh well, that seems to happen when you're a tourist!

Then it was back on the train to Salzburg.  Our conductor had hair like a lion's mane and Alison nicknamed him Barry Gibb.  We travelled alongside the alps but it was too dark to get any decent photos.  Maybe Thursday when we leave.  Tomorrow is the Sound of Music tour and something else in the afternoon.  I've been told but I can't remember.  The hotel we are staying in is just around the corner from a big Porsche salesroom full of VWs and Audis.  Not a Porsche to be seen!

The alps speeding by at 150ish k

The weather has been a bit warmer today.  It even got up to 6 in Vienna.  It is about 2 in Salzburg so not too bad.

Oh, and one last thing, Happy Birthday dad!

It means nothing to me...This means nothing to me.....

Oh Vienna (link to click)

This has been on a loop in my head for days now.  We started early this morning with a walk to the station to catch our train to Vienna.  Well, two trains actually.  One to Katowice and one from there to Vienna.  Via the Czech Republic.  We had no reservations on the first train which was domestic and crowded until we reached the Krakow Industrial Park.  I had to practically sit on my suitcase and on someone's lap as he wanted to occupy the empty seat next to me.  I made sure that every time he nodded I moved and bumped him and woke him up.  Oops!

For the second part of the journey we had company.  Firstly a lovely young Australian couple who were seven months in to their 12 months of travel and secondly by some older Czech gentlemen who helped us with our bags.

Goodbye Poland, you've been awesome

Hello Czech Republic, nice passing through you

Upon arrival we decided to take a cab to our hotel, which turned out to be a great idea as it was further away than we thought.  There are two hotels with the same name.  After a short rest we went for a walk to find the Donau, or Danube as it is known as in French.  As usually happens with me, I went the long way.  But, on the up side, we found the Post Office we were looking for.

Now tucked up in the hotel room after having inhaled dinner.  It's hard work being in three countries in one day! Off to Salzburg tomorrow afternoon after a couple of Hop On Hop Off tours tomorrow morning.

The white building is a school located out the hotel room window

View into the office block out the window.  I wonder how many witness shenanigans in the hotel rooms.

View out the window

Ghosts, both Holy and unholy

Last night we went to church.  Alison had located and messaged the Anglican congregation in Krakow.  They are a small and friendly group and the congregation consisted of 15, including us.  They don't have a dhurch yet so they just meet in a room in a building.  We were made to feel very welcome by Rev. David who comes down from Warsaw.  He is an Englishman and has been in Poland for a year and a half and doesn't speak Polish at all!  Apparently it is a hard language to learn but, in my opinion, he could have made a bit more of an effort!  The service was conducted in a mixture of Polish and English.  Dominic, who is considering ordination, did the Polish bits and translated the sermon from English to Polish and David took the bits that had to be taken by someone ordained, in English.  Dominic was a lovely guy and the service was great and pretty easy to follow, especially the bits in English!  At the end, we observed the Polish Christmas tradition of breaking bread and blessing each other in the congregation.  Alison got to read a leason as she revealed her true identity when she was asked.

Before and after

After that, it was the ghost tour.  We were starting to get a bit worried that our guide wouldn't show but just after seven we were approached by a man in a black coat and fedora who asked if we were on the ghost tour.  We spent an hour walking around the square and were told four ghost stories at four different locations.  Appareently they are all based on true stories!  There was one moment when we were lulled into being scared when someone jumped out at us.  I was very good and only said one swear word!  And it wan't even a bad one!  After that it was back to the hotel and sleep.  Our guide had informed us that there would be fireworks in the square the next day so that is our plan for this evening.

Today, we went to the Castle, which was built in the late 15th century.  My mission was to not go arse over in the ice on the way there.  I am pleased to report it was sucessful!  All the way through this trip I have had location specific songs in my head.  Today was no exception.  'Castle on a Cloud' was playing on a loop in my head all the way up the gentle hill to where the castle is located.  Inside it is quite richly decorated with painted walls, large tapestries, faded now but would have been magnificent in their time, and paintings.  We also went in to see da Vinci's painting of Lady with an Ermine.  On the way back to the hotel we went and visited the locations of last night's stories.

The castle overlooks the river, which is pretty much completely frozen over.  It was great watching the swans come in for a landing.  Reminded me of coming in to Wellington on a windy day.  I will put up the photos later when I get them sent to me.

We have a french patisserie over the road that does hit chocolate made with actual chocolate.  Divine on a wet day like today and that is what I am doing now, while providing this update.  Tomorrow we have to get up before sparrow's fart to catch our train to Vienna (cue the Ultravox ear worm!).

It's a beautiful day

After a gorgeous, clear, purple skied evening, this morning dawned clear and crisp.  At one point it was -8 and, by the time we went out, it had increased to -3.  We went to the mall.  We were dressed for outside and consequently baked in the heating in the mall.  We bought our train tickets for Vienna and then went to the market square to pick up some souvenirs and some lunch.

These things are evil!  Renamed Kremówka Papieska after it was discovered that Pope John Paul II liked them, I tried one on someone's recommendation.  Oh my goodness.

This afternoon's agenda is relaxing before heading out after dark on a ghost hunt.

Auschwitz

Today started early.  We were being picked up for our tour at 7 am so we needed to be up by 6.  It took us about an hour and a half to get to Oswiecim, which is the Polish name for the town that the camps are situated in.  It began snowing as we headed out and there was more snow falling when we arrived.  It kind of contributed to the solemn mood that seemed to pervade the entire place.  I recommend you get there early as by the time we had looked through Auschitz I the large tour groups were there too.  We had six in our group which meant we could go at a more leisurely and reflective pace.

Having visited Dachau a few years ago, I had sort of an idea what to expect, even though the guide there went to great pains to state that Dachau was a concentration camp not an extermination camp and that the showers and ovens weren't used.  It still didn't really prepare me for how the place felt, especially stepping once again through the gates labelled 'Arbeit macht Frei'.  The guide today also stressed that all numbers that we saw were estimates as the only people recorded were the ones that weren't sent to the gas chamber immediately.  The estimate for the number recorded was 30% of all those that went through.  I had heard about the cabinets as well but seeing them with the hair, suitcases, eyeglasses etc was pretty sobering.  We were shown different places including the underground cells and the cell Maximilian Kolbe occupied.  I saw a picture on the wall of someone whose last name was Wisniewski which is a variant of my last name.  While we were inside the weather cleared, it stopped snowing and the sun came out.

Shelter for the SS soldier doing the head count.  We don't want him getting wet or too hot in the sun

After that it was a short car ride to the 20x bigger Auschwitz II-Birkenau site.  This has been left much as the Germans left it when they fled after blowing up the gas chambers and the crematoria.  The train tracks go straight through the main gate and right through to the other side of the compound where the underground gas chambers are.  I estimated it was about a kilometre to walk through the gates to the back of the camp.  It is again a pretty sobering walk and we did it in the sunshine on fresh snow and knew that we were only there for a visit.  The walk went alongside the train tracks and had ditches on either side.  To your right were the remains of the 'newer' wooden barracks, 300 of them by the time the camp was liberated and to your left were kitchens, latrines and more barracks, the ones made of bricks.  All had been built by the prisoners using materials salvaged when the village that originally stood there was 'vacated' and the camp purpose built.

The walk in

Looking back to the entrance.  Wooden barracks on the left, brick on the right

One of the destroyed crematoria

At the end, the guide summed up the tour quite well.  She said that all the way through she had been asking us to imagine what it had been like, but, in reality we really couldn't imagine what it was like.  Around the end of the war there had been 100,000 people interred there.  Only 700 were liberated.  We were shown the women's barracks, again, untouched and you could feel the women that had occupied that space, 700 at a time, in bunks three tiers high, five per bunk with no toilet facilities, no insulation and no heating.  The dirt floor was uneven and the lowest bunks were straight on to that floor.  The upper bunks were wooden.  It was relatively warm today but we could still see our breath when we were standing inside.

Inside the women's barracks

That completed our tour and we were left to walk back to the other car park to meet our car and return to Krakow.

Looking back to Auschwitz II-Birkenau